On Monday, January 23rd, the American Library Association announced the award-winning books written in 2011. For those of you who fondly remember hunting through the shelves of your library as a child looking for the round foil medals of Newbery and Caldecott award books, I have good news for you. There’s a teen award called the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature that is given out to a book that “exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature”– a.k.a. a really good teen book! Check your library’s shelves for the four titles that will be sporting a new Printz award sticker or reserve a copy today!
Winner:
Seventeen-year-old Cullen’s summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin’s death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother’s sudden disappearance.
Honors:
Sixteen-year-old Min Green writes a letter to Ed Slaterton in which she breaks up with him, documenting their relationship and how items in the accompanying box, from bottle caps to a cookbook, foretell the end.
When the twelve-year war between the Uplanders and Downlanders is over and Cam returns home to his village, questions dog him, from how he lost an arm to why he was the only one of his fellow soldiers to survive, such that he must leave until his own suspicions are resolved.
Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
~Kelly, CLP – Woods Run
Filed under: Book Reviews, Books and Reading, Teen Interest, YALSA Awards Tagged: | award winners, Printz Award, YALSA
